The Jörgits –
They have come to warm you.

"The Jörgits is a perfect balance between whiz-bang multimedia and old-school textual immersion." – FastCo Design

The Jörgits and the End of Winter is the first book that I’ve written and illustrated. It’s an all-ages illustrated novel about a motley crew of aliens who crash-land in Helsinki.  In the spring of 2013 I raised 25K through a Kickstarter to publish the book as an app.
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The book is an old fashion adventure story that uses global warming as the backdrop. The Jörgits is conceived as a series of books that will introduce children to cultures around the world; the complexity of the problems that we face but also the wonderful diversity that is out there. A second book is currently in the works.


Team

Development: INKONIQ
Soundtrack: ISRO
Story: Myself
Editor: Marylin Fu
Illustration: Myself, Eliza Jäppinen, Team Octopus
Motion Graphics: Rudransh Mattur
Website: Reeve Jolliffe

Outcomes

An interactive children's novel

With the Jörgits Book App I set out to explore the future of the digital book –  to what extent could we merge interactive content with a reading experience. How could use interactive content to educate readers about geography and global warming?

A mysterious, engaging world

The Jörgits & the End of Winter took two years to illustrate and was the effort of several illustrators including myself, and my sister Eliza, and my former student Constanza Mahaluf.

There are more than fifty unique illustrations, including depictions of everything from outer space to the my summer cottage in Ostrobotnia in Northern Finland.

Playful Interactivity through diagrams

Interactive elements in the story allow the reader to go deeper. For example, the Helsinki City Map tracks the Jörgits’ journey through the city.

Bringing characters to life

Characters sheets provide extra information and context to the story. What does the Jörgits’ eye colors mean? What do Finns eat to keep themselves happy during the long Northern winter?

Sound scapes

Make music while exploring a scene from the book with interactive soundscapes. The soundtrack is composed specifically for the Jörgits by Indian Sonic Research Organization: electronic music for kids.

The End of Winter Book

Another Kickstarter

In fall of 2013, I decided to release the Jörgits as a printed book.  After years of working with the content it was relatively easy to re-package it into a new format. I raised another 8K through a second Kickstarter and did a small print run of the book.

A labor of love

I took the opportunity to create a set new illustrations and had a ton of fun playing with typography and layout.

24 hours of Christmas Cards–no sleep in Bangalore.

Kickstarters are hard, to get my second one over the hump I gave myself the challenge to illustrate a personal X-mas card for everyone who backed my project during a 24 hour period.

27 cards in 24 hours

I managed to average a bit more than one card an hour. It's amazing what you can do when you're motivated. Below are my favorite cards that I designed that night.